Suns News: Week 23 (3/24 - 3/30)

[Superbone]

The Matrix had a pretty special skill in his ability to read the court and anticipate. He just had a knack for seeing where the play was headed and being there in time for the dunk, rebound, etc. He had incredible bball intuition.

I do agree that Dunn should play a similar style, but he's not that level of player at all.

Marion had all those cartoon reflexes...from watching all those cartoons.

[Furlanfufi]

knowwhatimsayin?

[TOO]

knowwhatimsayin?

Good post this.

[ShelC]

So I think this flew under the radar but a stretch and waive of Beal doesn't look possible. A team is only allowed 15% of the cap to be "dead" money, which would be about $23mil overall next year. Stretching Beal would be around $22 per season but the Suns have already stretched Liddell and Little which would bring the total to $25mil. We could just buy Beal out altogether but would Ishbia swallow that pill. Even if he took a bit less than the $110m owed, it's still a lot of money to make him go away.

[virtual9mm]

So I think this flew under the radar but a stretch and waive of Beal doesn't look possible. A team is only allowed 15% of the cap to be "dead" money, which would be about $23mil overall next year. Stretching Beal would be around $22 per season but the Suns have already stretched Liddell and Little which would bring the total to $25mil. We could just buy Beal out altogether but would Ishbia swallow that pill. Even if he took a bit less than the $110m owed, it's still a lot of money to make him go away.

Not necessarily. Do we have final cap numbers next year?

[ShelC]

Next year's cap is projected to be about 154-155mil. Even if it comes in higher at 160mil, 15% of that is 24 and we'd still be over.

[Split T]

Cap can’t come in higher. That 154 number is based on a 10% increase which is the max increase

[Mori Chu]

Why buy out Beal? When he actually plays he is decent, especially off the bench. We have to pay him, and have him hit against the cap, either way. So why not just keep him here if we can't trade him (which seems likely)?

[Kryptonic]

Why buy out Beal? When he actually plays he is decent, especially off the bench. We have to pay him, and have him hit against the cap, either way. So why not just keep him here if we can't trade him (which seems likely)?

Because we’re forced to find minutes for a guy who isn’t part of our future. He’s a square peg in a round hole on this team.

[JeremyG]

I never understood why people wanted to waive-and-stretch Beal and have dead money on the cap for years. It would be much better to just waive/buy him out and only have the cap hit for next season!

[Kryptonic]

Yea I’d rather not drag that out either.

[The Bobster]

I never understood why people wanted to waive-and-stretch Beal and have dead money on the cap for years. It would be much better to just waive/buy him out and only have the cap hit for next season!

The Suns owe him $53 million next year and $57 million in 2026-27. There is no way you're going to get him to eat $57 million, because they can't pay him any more than the $53 million next year. So just buying his out is pretty impractical.

So unless they're willing to eat $110 million, or they can find a taker for him that he will agree to, he's not going anywhere.

[Superbone]

Why buy out Beal? When he actually plays he is decent, especially off the bench. We have to pay him, and have him hit against the cap, either way. So why not just keep him here if we can't trade him (which seems likely)?

Because we’re forced to find minutes for a guy who isn’t part of our future. He’s a square peg in a round hole on this team.

Plus, all the stats point to a worse win/loss record when he plays.

[Mori Chu]

Plus, all the stats point to a worse win/loss record when he plays.

They do. But I think mostly that is because we are playing him at the same time as Booker, and you can't play those two together. Beal + KD works fine, and Book + KD works fine. But Book + Beal is oil and water.

I think Beal can still be an asset off the bench if you try to maximize the number of non-Booker minutes he plays. I realize that Book plays most of the game, so that doesn't leave much room for Beal to play when he sits. But you make certain to have Beal out there for 100% of those minutes, and maybe 10 other minutes of the game, and he's less bad.

I'm just saying, we have the guy, he can score 20+ a lot of games. Beal is actually pretty decent when he is healthy and when he is in the right lineups. Everybody says he is a terrible defender, but IMO Book is a MUCH worse defender than Beal, who is bigger, stronger, and gives more consistent effort. The real killer on defense is when you are playing both of them, and then neither of our guards is a strong perimeter defender.

Either way, we are stuck with his contract. I don't see the point in burying him on the bench and just eating his enormous contract. I don't think this is a sunk-cost fallacy, either; if he stunk, maybe. But he is a decent NBA guard, and we are paying him and we can't trade him. And maybe by actually playing him we can showcase his skills and increase the chance that another team would trade for him in the future. And I don't think it's a good look to future FAs that we would bury a guy brought in to be a part of the core of the team.

[ShelC]

I just don't think it can work. Beal's the elephant in the room and you're always going to have to try and find 30mpg for him whether he's a starter or not. That's tough on any coach, who needs his starters playing 32-35mpg and 3-4 bench guys playing 18-22. There has to be that kind of set rotation where guys know their roles and when/how much they're playing.

Beal's also too much of a ball dominant ISO midrange scorer. He needs an offense and team built around his skills which isn't going to happen. I know in theory it seems easy to say "let him be the main guy with the bench players" but it just doesn't work like that. There's going to be overlap and the pieces on the roster need to fit together. He doesn't fit here, never has. And that's really the larger issue with the roster- too many identical pieces. We need more offensive versatility along with size and athleticism.

[SunsRIt]

I just saw this:

Bradley Beal has a -236 plus/minus this season. That is 532nd out of 562 players in the NBA.

Let that marinate and then ask why to just dump him.

[virtual9mm]

Next year's cap is projected to be about 154-155mil. Even if it comes in higher at 160mil, 15% of that is 24 and we'd still be over.

Damn. Thanks.

[AmareIsGod]

Most importantly, you always have to deal with Beal being hurt, adjusting the lineups and how you play when he's hurt and then acclimate him to make him fit before he gets a few games under his belt and he's hurt again. That kind of constant shifting of everything around many times a season has to be frustrating for everyone on the roster and the coaching staff.

Absolutely terrible trade. Truly one of the worst in a laundry list of bad trades and signings in this franchises "storied" history.

[Split T]

Did we talk about this?

I’d love Stephon Castle

[ShelC]

Need one of Vassell or Castle plus Sochan.